Fire Damages St. John the Divine, Gutting Gift Shop and Scorching Art

By ALAN FEUER with DANIEL J. WAKIN

Published: December 19, 2001

A wing of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine erupted in flames yesterday morning, a week before thousands were to gather there for its late Christmas Eve service. The intense heat shattered several stained-glass windows, and orange towers of fire leapt 40 feet in the air, as the cavernous sanctuary was filled from floor to vaulted ceiling with a haze of inky smoke.

The five-alarm fire started in the gift shop in the cathedral's north transept but was contained before it could spread to the main sanctuary or into the woodwork of the roof, Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen said. No one was injured, he said. The fire gutted the shop and damaged part of the north transept.

Investigators have yet to determine the exact cause, but some fire officials said the fire might have started in a wastebasket in the gift shop and smoldered overnight.

While the damage could have been much worse, cathedral officials said a pair of one-of-a-kind 17th-century tapestries woven in Rome were severely damaged by the water, smoke and flames. One section of the 100-year-old, oak-encased pipe organ was located near the fire, though the cathedral organist said the instrument survived unscathed.

Located on Amsterdam Avenue in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, St. John's is one of the world's largest cathedrals and the principal church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Its cornerstone was laid in 1892, but the cathedral remains unfinished. Construction of the north transept, where the fire began, was stopped in 1941.

All daily services were canceled yesterday, as were classes at the Cathedral School. ''We have tens of thousands of people walking in and out of the cathedral on weeks like this,'' said Jere Farrah, the cathedral's executive vice president for development. ''It is inconceivable that this would happen now.''

Even though the floor near the central altar was flooded with water and the nave smelled thickly of smoke and dampness, church officials said yesterday that they hoped to resume regular services soon.

Mr. Farrah said the main goal would be to prepare the cathedral for the late Christmas Eve service, which draws up to 6,000 people. ''I know there's enormous determination that that will go on,'' he said. ''We just don't know if that's feasible.''

The cathedral is also host to concerts, dance performances, lectures and art exhibits. Two of its best-known events -- the Christmas concert, scheduled for tomorrow, and the performance of Handel's ''Messiah,'' scheduled for Friday -- will be moved to a hall on the grounds.

One of the first people to notice the fire was the cathedral's organist, Dorothy Papadakos, who lives in the stony mews next door. When she looked out her window about 6:30 a.m., she said, ''I saw a huge cloud of smoke, and a wall of orange flames.''

Nearly 200 firefighters from 44 units responded to the call. By 8 a.m., Amsterdam Avenue from 110th to 113th Street was clogged with hastily parked emergency vehicles, crisscrossing fire hoses and men running back and forth in bunker gear. Three ladder units rained water down on the blackened, but still sparking, wooden beams of the gift shop from cherry pickers 50 feet in the air.

Parishioners and neighborhood residents gathered under the awning of St. Luke's Hospital on West 113th Street to avoid the driving rain and to watch the firefighters. Another shocked group stood watching and sipping coffee at the Hungarian Pastry Shop on Amsterdam Avenue.

The great bronze doors of the cathedral are used only on holidays, but they were flung wide open yesterday, spilling out smoke in thick wafts like a man exhaling from a cigar. Through the darkened clouds, the tiny flames from a dozen or so votive candles could be seen still burning just beyond the doors.

The interior of the cathedral was largely undamaged, though six inches of water stood near the altar where several chairs lay tossed in a jumble. Firefighters trained flashlights on the high stone walls as cathedral workers used brooms to clear the water away.

The upper halves of several stained glass windows on the cathedral's northern side were smashed clean through by the heat of the blaze. Chunks of charred wood could be seen on the ground, piled atop one another, through what remained of the gift shop door.

The firefighters treated the cathedral tenderly. They refrained from smashing the stained-glass windows, a measure that would have vented the fire and made conditions less smoky. They used heat sensors to detect flames to cut down on the amount of water used. Fire officials said that the quick response kept the fire from engulfing the cathedral. ''It was a nice save,'' said Lt. Robert Savarese, of Ladder Company 22.

The most serious damage involved two of the Barberini tapestries, named for a princely family from Rome that sold them to an American collector at the end of the 19th century. The cathedral owns 12 in all, each displaying a tableau from the life of Christ in the Roman Baroque style. The largest, ''The Last Supper,'' suffered the worst harm, cathedral officials said. Firefighters carefully removed the tapestries from the walls after they had been soaked and covered in soot, grime and glass.

Although the tapestry was seriously damaged, textile experts were already working to restore what remained, the officials said. Six of the unharmed tapestries were in storage and the other four were hanging on a southern wall.

To the Venerable Michael Kendall, an archdeacon of the diocese, the tapestries were not the only treasures inside St. John's. The remains of many people, including the ashes of his parents, were in the Columbarium inside the church, which was apparently undamaged.

Archdeacon Kendall stood in the rain, water dripping from his face. It was 9 a.m., and he had only recently climbed from bed. He mentioned the grief that has washed over the city in recent months, and added, ''Here we are, grieving once again.''

Photos: Firefighters surveyed the damage yesterday at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. Above left, textile conservatory workers examined the charred and soggy remains of ''The Last Supper,'' one of two Italian Baroque tapestries that were severely damaged. (Photographs by Ruby Washington/The New York Times)(pg. D1); Firefighters John Lavecchia and Tom Papaccio talked to Sister Faith Margaret from the Community of the Holy Spirit outside St. John the Divine. (Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times); Firefighters in cherry pickers sprayed water onto the wooden beams of the church gift shop, where the fire started. The shop was gutted. (Angel Franco/The New York Times)(pg. D6) Chart: ''INSIDE THE CATHEDRAL -- Fire Damage to a Church'' Schematics of Cathedral Church of St. John Divine shows areas damaged. A large crucifix in the bapistry may have been damaged. Two tapestries, hanging in the cathedral behind this wall, were severely damaged. Everything in the gift shop was destroyed. (Source: Wayne H. Kempton, archivist, Episcopal Diocese of New York) Map of Manhattan highlights location of church. (pg. D6)